Love is Enough
by Pickwick12
Summary: Two-shot describing Pepper's and Tony's inward journeys as they come to know and love each other. Spoilers for Iron Man 3.
1. Pepper

_Love is patient._

They've worked together for years upon years. She used to wonder if he ever thought about that, ever wondered why she'd stayed so long. Sure, the money was good, but she could have worked somewhere else in a heartbeat, somewhere where they'd have given her a fancier title and a bigger office a heck of a lot sooner than Tony ever did.

She wondered if he'd really never figured it out. Or maybe the truth was too much for the man-child Tony Stark to handle.

_Love is kind_.

She's never been cruel to him. That's where she draws the line. She will put her foot down. She will say no. She will stand up to Tony Stark with every bit of her five foot, nine inch frame, but she won't crush him.

Oh, she knows how. She knows every single one of Tony Stark's buttons. If she wanted to, she could reduce him to absolute nothing. But knowing means she never will, because knowing means loving. To her, the two have always been inseparable.

_It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud._

Tony's always been the face. He's the one on the magazines, the one who gets invitations to the White House. She's only part of those things because he brings her in, pulls her into his ever-widening circle.

Sometimes, people ask her why she doesn't mind. Isn't she a modern woman?

Of course she is, but she knows that Tony Stark needs limelight like plants need sun. The only thing he needs more than that is someone to come home to whose arms are open no matter what.

That's why.

_It does not dishonor others._

People say Pepper Potts is classy, that no matter how many times you ask her or how many ways you phrase the question, she won't throw Tony Stark under the bus. No matter what he does or how many mistakes he makes, she just smiles and nods with a knowing look in her eyes.

He must be paying her a fortune, they say, to get that kind of loyalty.

She's the only one who knows the truth, that when she thinks of Tony Stark, all the silly mistakes and stupid antics are crowded out by the memory of his arms around her and the way his eyes look when he's made a new discovery. The Tony she knows may be broken, but that brokenness just means the light shines brighter through him.

_It is not self-seeking._

She never wanted the promotion. She can handle it, of course, the way she's always handled Tony's schedule and his dry cleaning and his lawsuits. But she never looked for it.

Being with him was always enough. It was her choice, never about crushing her own dreams or killing her potential. It was about finding what she wanted and pursuing it whole-heartedly no matter how long it took.

It was her quest. He was her quest.

_It is not easily angered. _

Goodness knows she gets mad at Tony. How can anyone not get mad at Tony who's spent more than three minutes around him?

People always whisper that it's amazing how much he listens to her. For some reason, the man who won't listen to anybody sits up and takes notice when the red-headed woman speaks to him in that particular tone. Nobody gets it.

Nobody except Pepper. She knows about picking battles, about the respect that comes when you only ever get mad about the important things, the life and death things. She gets mad when she has to, and he knows it.

_It keeps no record of wrongs._

If she kept track of all the times he's failed her, she'd have a ledger a thousand pages long. He's been irresponsible, inconsiderate, and thoughtless. That was just the first week.

But there's more to Tony Stark than the hyperactive carelessness of an overgrown child, and when she realized that, the rest didn't matter any more. When she saw his heart, she burned the ledger forever.

_Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth._

Lots of people have told her to ditch Tony Stark, to sell out and tell the secrets she knows. The offers—well, they've been so huge it's hard to even comprehend the money she's been offered, the power, the property.

But even on the difficult days, she's not tempted. Even when she's frustrated, she doesn't cave. She knows the truth, the hard-as-metal truth that the immature, impulsive, huge-hearted man she loves is good, and she would die for him.

_It always protects. _

As the suit closes around her, she screams, not because of fear or pain, but because she can't do anything to stop the metal from encasing her body and instead force it onto the body of the one she loves. She would happily endure whatever agony is to come if only she could know that he's safe, protected, cared for.

She has protected him with words more times than she can count, but she would gladly protect him with her life.

_Always trusts._

Even as she walks away, her body reeling in shock from what she's just endured, she refuses to give up. She would know, she thinks, if his life has been erased from the world. The gap would be too big.

She's never been one to think about metaphysical connections or soulmates. It's far simpler than that. Tony has become her life. If he was gone, she wouldn't be alive. She couldn't be.

_Always hopes._

As the serum courses through her body, she closes her eyes tightly and pictures Tony in her mind. It doesn't matter how. She sees him laughing, and she sees him crying. She feels his kiss on her lips and his tears on her cheek. The images blend into each other, year after year, the simplest moments suddenly sacred with meaning.

The pain—the pain only serves to make her more alert, awake to her unshakable faith. All of her years with Tony have led to this one moment in time, this ultimate test of her faith.

She breathes in and out slowly. She has passed the test. She knows he will come, and she will be saved.

_Always perseveres._

It's her turn.

Tony has always been her hero, through dark days and good days. When she wanted to slap him and hold him. All the years pile up like sand on the beach, stacking up to form a life together. He's always been the rescuer, she the rescued.

Today is different. Today she will stand between Tony Stark and the edge of darkness.

She is like molten lead; she is on fire. He thinks she burns because of what has been done to her, because of the poison in her veins. Someday she will tell him that she needed no serum that day.

She will spend a lifetime showing him that love was enough.


	2. Tony

_Love is patient._

People think he's the hard one to live with. They see the crazy—and there's definitely a lot of that. But they don't understand that sometimes, the ones who are the least crazy on the outside have the most pain on the inside.

He's always loved her. Hopelessly _he thinks_, deeply _he knows_, endlessly _he can't help_.

She's Pepper. That's all there is to it. No matter how long it takes, he will wait for her.

_Love is kind._

He used to think it was the grand gestures. Sometimes, he still does. He can't really understand why, but he's started to see something else, something different.

Pepper doesn't care about the diamonds or the houses. She cares—well, he's not sure what it is. He doesn't understand why the lightest touch of his hand earns him a kiss, or why, when it's late at night and he has machine oil streaked across his face, she wants nothing more than to wrap her arms around him.

She cares about the little things, he finally realizes.

_It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud._

Tony Stark has an ego the size of New York. Everybody knows that. There's only one person he never fools.

People think he's addicted to the adulation, but really, there's only one addiction he can't shake. He's hooked on a pair of bright eyes and long legs and a voice that says no more times than he can count.

She knows him. That's the thing. You can't be proud around the one person who sees everything.

_It does not dishonor others._

Promoting Pepper was the easiest decision he ever made. It was obvious, almost too obvious. He felt silly.

That's why he did it in his offhand, childish way. He couldn't bear to look—really look in her eyes and see amazement and gratitude. She didn't owe him anything.

He owed her everything.

_It is not self-seeking._

He gives no thought to which of them he's going to protect. A thousand people might argue that he should have saved himself first, and Tony Stark would disagree with them a thousand times.

Love, when it's a love of years, is like instinct.

_It is not easily angered._

Pepper Potts isn't a shy woman. Being told off by her—well, he's so used to it it's almost like breathing.

Sometimes people ask him why he doesn't put a stop to it. The woman works for him, after all. Doesn't she have a place to be, an office to stay in, a boundary she can't cross with him?

Tony Stark just blinks. You can't contain Pepper Potts any more than you can contain a hurricane. And why would you want to?

_It keeps no record of wrongs._

Everyone sees his mistakes. He's always been one for the grand gestures, whether good or bad. His misdeeds make headlines.

Nobody sees how many times she's broken his heart. No one knows how hard he's tried to win her, to prove to her that the love he promises is more than words. They don't see the subtle refusal in her eyes.

Tony is glad. He wants the world to see Pepper Potts as a tower of strength. That's how he sees her. The rest—that will come in time. Every day is a new day, and Tony Stark never gives up.

_Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. _

He sees through her as clearly as she sees through him. It's their unspoken agreement.

Their truth is a truth forged by years that contain two lonely lives that somehow intersected and knotted together, tighter and tighter, until neither can imagine pulling the strands apart.

She needs him as much as he needs her. He will never show her that he knows.

_It always protects._

Tony Stark was never willing to die for anyone until he met Pepper Potts, but somehow, knowing her and loving her has changed him so much he hardly recognizes himself. Now, he risks his life without so much as a hesitation, because he knows how many things there are in this world worth dying for.

Through Pepper's eyes, he sees good as he never saw it before. If that's dangerous, so be it. He's ready.

_Always trusts. _

There's something Tony hasn't told anyone, not even Jarvis.

When the suit—the tinkering metal casing that stands between him and death—when it flies to his body, melds itself with him, he only ever has one thought.

Pepper Potts.

Pepper is the armor that shields him from the world. Her arms are the things that hold him up when he can't stand any more. Her face is the vision that fills his days with life. Metal is inanimate, cold, unfeeling., but she—she is armor made of love.

_Always hopes. _

Tony Stark is sure about things. Business empires rise and fall on his hunches. Careers flourish and perish on his opinions. But the one thing he never knew for sure was the one thing he wanted most.

Hope became reality. It was the best day of his life.

_Always perseveres._

There is nothing he will not do for her, nowhere he will not go. That's why he puts on the most spectacular fireworks show in history, just for her.

After all, she saved him, and he's never one to be outdone.

Sometimes it's the grand gestures after all.


End file.
